Farmers puts up 3-D billboard

Farmers puts up 3-D billboard

boardman

Farmers National Bank erected a three-dimensional billboard along U.S. Route 224 on Tuesday, the first billboard of its kind to go up in the Mahoning Valley since 2007. The advertisement features a life-size rock climber scaling the Farmers boulder, which symbolizes the strength of the Canfield-based bank. The concept for the three-dimensional ad was developed by The Prodigal Company, a marketing and branding agency based in Poland.

GM says goodbye to Mr. Goodwrench

DETROIT

General Motors is asking Mr. Goodwrench to pack up his toolbox.

The mechanic who served as the symbol of GM’s dealer service brand for 37 years will be scrapped as of Feb. 1 in favor of “certified service” brands for each of GM’s four remaining nameplates, the company said Tuesday.

GM dumped four brands as it went through bankruptcy protection last year and now sells only Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

Mr. Goodwrench started in 1974 to give a common identity to service for all of its dealers and brands. The character started out as a friendly-looking mechanic in a crisp, light-blue shirt and evolved into a drawing of a brawny man in a striped work shirt hoisting the brand’s blue G-shaped logo.

Google announces preview feature

NEW YORK

People searching on Google soon will be able to see previews of websites before clicking on them.

The “Instant Previews” feature announced Tuesday is meant to help people bypass websites that are either irrelevant or simply too visually cluttered for their tastes. It works for Google Web searches as well as searches for news, video and local businesses.

After clicking on an icon of a magnifying glass, people will see a picture of the website in the white space to the right of the search results within a tenth of a second. Although the preview photo will vary in size, just as Google Inc.’s image results do, Google designed the previews so they’ll never eclipse the search results and clutter the page.

Google also will show a box above the picture zooming in on the section of the website where the search terms appear. The search terms will be highlighted in that box.

Vindicator staff/wire reports